Who dat? It’s Ratatat!

by Team Swagbucks on Tue, January 25th, 2011 at 11:00 am

Ratatat have always amazed me. They are different than any other electronic duo available for listeners, and it’s not just the fact that you won’t see a Mac Book on stage with them. Mike Stroud and Evan Mast are ballerinas of the genre, taking anything adolescent about electronic music and conforming it into complete sophistication. The group incorporates very few vocal clips into their tracks, but when they do, they stand out. In their most recent release, LP4 “Neckbrace,” the song starts off with the an older woman’s voice crackling the words, “They were just getting ready to scream and knocked me out with a baseball bat,” increasing her tone to a slight chuckle, as if it were just another day at work; then the track quickly transitions into the smooth beat of a deep bellowing drum and the relaxing sound of classical music being played on a guitar. The band also puts on a massive show, and it’s not because they’re wailing around the stage as the calming music moves them erratically, it’s because they create an environment that allows you to focus on art. The stage is dark, and using a projector they launch an art installment not too different than the visuals in their music videos. Check out the video for “Neckbrace:”

You can now download this song in the Swag Store for 199 SB. Ratatat will be performing Sunday, April 17th during Coachella this year, and it will not be their first Indio appearance. They were there in 2007 and recently just wrapped up a tour after releasing LP, ond OC Register’s David Hall was there for Ratatat’s performance at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, CA. He described the groups visual effects gear performance as, “an awe-inspiring sight: two nearly identical long-haired silhouettes lost in the throes of uninhibited musical passion — twitching, writhing and bending to the intricate electronic arrangements before eventually collapsing onto the stage, instruments still whining and ringing, at the song’s chaotic conclusion.” Read the whole article here.